Monday 14 December 2009 07.26 EST
First published on Monday 14 December 2009 07.26 EST

Marcello Lippi might as well get used to it. "I will decide when the appropriate moment is to talk about this, and it isn't right now," grumped the Italy manager when asked whether Mario Balotelli had a shot of making the national side. With Antonio Cassano struggling for form and Francesco Totti still undecided on an international return it was only a matter of time before someone else's name came up. The World Cup is just six months away, and the consensus in Italy is that Lippi's attack still needs strengthening.

Balotelli was the name on people's tongues after his savagely brilliant free-kick and tidy assist against Rubin Kazan on Wednesday, but it's doubtful he will be this week after an underwhelming showing during Inter's 1-1 draw with Atalanta. Instead, Lippi might just find himself fielding questions about Cagliari's Alessandro Matri.

Matri got his name on the scoresheet in the Rossoblu's eventful and highly enjoyable 3-3 draw with Napoli at Stadio Sant'Elia on Saturday, and in the process also got his name in the record books. By scoring in a seventh consecutive top-flight game, Matri achieved a feat that only Gigi Riva, back in 1971-72, had previously managed in the club's colours. That would be the same Riva who remains top of the national side's all-time scoring charts, with 35 goals in 42 appearances.

"Let's not make comparisons," said Matri after the game, modestly but with good reason. Riva scored more than 150 goals with Cagliari and in his 13 seasons with the club had a strike rate better than a goal every other game. Matri has scored eight in 16 Serie A fixtures this season, but in his first two with the club he managed just 12 in 65. Before the present campaign, in fact, he was arguably better-known for going out with both the main dancers from the much-loved satirical TV nonsense-fest Striscia La Notizia than for his achievements on the pitch.

But if it is too soon to start anointing Matri as the second coming then his present form deserves to be recognised. He was certainly the one who galvanised Cagliari on Saturday. The team were trailing 2-0 with 15 minutes to play and had barely registered a shot on target when Matri set up Joaquín Larrivey for their first. Five minutes later he rose to head in the equaliser, before Jeda gave Cagliari an unlikely lead in the 90th minute only for Napoli to grab an even less likely equaliser in the sixth minute of injury time.

Tall enough at 6ft and solidly built, Matri claims to model his game on that of Didier Drogba and in broad terms fits the job description for a "classic No9". He has sufficient pace to trouble defenders but excels in the air and at holding the ball up. The Cagliari manager, Massimiliano Allegri, has tended to prefer a two-striker formation this year, but it is not hard to imagine how Matri could equally lead the line in a 4-5-1 or attacking trident.

Not that anyone is questioning Allegri's judgment. The manager continues to insist that his team, 12th in the league, are focused on securing enough points to avoid relegation, but in a division where parity reigns this season, Cagliari are also just two points off fifth and five points away from a Champions League spot. Before losing to Palermo last week, they had won five out of six in Serie A.

Matri is just one of a number of players to have flourished under Allegri. The manager got off to a slow start after taking over in May last year, losing his first five league games in charge, but since then he has kick-started a number of players' careers. The goalkeeper Federico Marchetti and midfielder Davide Biondini both made their international debuts in the past year.

But Allegri has not only helped Cagliari's up-and-coming players. Andrea Cossu, a 29-year-old attacking midfielder who has spent much of his career in Serie B and below, has developed into such an accomplished trequartista under Allegri that Gazzetta dello Sport's Maurizio Nicita felt moved to declare that the player would be wanted by the best teams in Europe if only his name were more exotic. The captain, Daniele Conti, absent on Saturday through suspension, has been at Cagliari since 1999 but never looked so composed as he has this year in a holding role in front of the defence.

Cagliari, to be fair, were not at their best on Saturday, outplayed by Napoli for most of the game, but Allegri's substitutions helped turn the tide – with both Lavirrey and Jeda coming off the bench to score. The team's capacity to create goals from nothing – only three teams have scored more this season – and above all to do so at decisive moments – nobody has scored more in the last 15 minutes of games – owes much to the manager's astute decision making.

Napoli, too, know something about late goals, having scored late winners against Juventus and Bari in the past six weeks, as well as staging an incredible comeback to draw with Milan having trailed 2-0 with less than a minute remaining. Mariano Bogliacino's equaliser on Sunday came from the very last touch of the game, and preserved a run of nine league games unbeaten for the Partenopei since Walter Mazzarri replaced Roberto Donadoni as manager (though cynics might point out that Napoli have also won only one of their past five in Serie A).

Some have suggested they might not even have had time to score that equaliser were it not for Ezequiel Lavezzi getting himself sent off in injury time, after kicking a ball at Allegri, who had just attempted to waste time by kicking the ball away himself. Both parties apologised afterwards, while also seeking to downplay the incident.

"If I made a mistake then I apologise," said Allegri, though he was quick to insist Cagliari were normally one of the better-behaved sides. "We are an educated and respectful club, the Cagliari crowd should be happy to have a team like this."

With Matri and the rest on this sort of form, you can be sure that they are.

Talking points

• Inter's draw was actually enough for them to extend their lead over both Milan and Juve at the top of the table as both teams lost – 2-0 at home to Palermo and 3-1 away to Bari respectively. Milan will shrug off the result after their recent good run, but for Juventus the defeat feels that bit more significant after their midweek loss to Bayern Munich. Juve's president, Jean-Claude Blanc, insisted afterwards that he would not sack Ciro Ferrara, but the mood is turning rapidly against the coach and the Turin-based Tuttosport is beginning to push Roberto Mancini as a replacement.

• The scapegoat in Turin for the meantime is Diego, who missed a penalty that would have brought Juve back into the game at 2-2 against Bari. Diego was given 3.5 out of 10 by Gazzetta dello Sport for his performance on Saturday, which was perhaps unduly harsh, and he was jeered during the defeat to Bayern. But the player has shown what he is capable of in his early performances for Juve. That he is not living up to those showings is indicative of the facts that he is still settling in, that the team as a whole are in a bad run and perhaps that Ferrara lacks the tactical vision to get the best out of him.

• The one team who did take advantage of all the big sides' slips, and indeed the only team in the top half of the table to win a game all weekend, was Parma, who beat Bologna 2-1. They now sit fourth, three points clear of fifth-placed Roma, and are beginning to look like they might just have the consistency required to put up a serious challenge for a Champions League berth.

• José Mourinho watched Inter's draw at Atalanta from the stands after his sending-off in the Derby d'Italia but that didn't stop him stirring up more fuss. First Inter cancelled their pre-game press conference, and then Mourinho was reported to have shoved Andrea Ramazzotti when he saw the journalist standing in an area by the team bus normally reserved for the Inter Channel, though eyewitnesses claim Ramazzotti had been given permission to stay there.

• Cassano was also back in the news for the wrong reasons this week, after making one or two crude hand gestures at some Sampdoria fans during an open-air training session. The fans, who had already been giving him grief, only got more excited at this point, and the manager, Gigi Del Neri, wound up having to cancel the session and take everyone inside. If only Cassano had been so lively during his team's rather flat 0-0 draw with Roma last night.

• The Lazio president, Claudio Lotito, decided during the week that he would not make a decision on sacking Davide Ballardini until the winter break. Well, Ballardini cleared the first hurdle as his side beat Genoa this weekend 1-0. Next up for Lazio? Inter away.

• Silvio Berlusconi suffered a fractured nose and damage to his teeth after being hit in the face by a man after a political rally. It's not really a football story, so I won't go into details here, but here's the link to the Guardian's news story if anyone is interested.